Angels and the Bad Man
by Miriani
Summary: A Stranger in a strange land. And a strange body. Harry finds the way beyond the Veil leads to another land and time. He is still the Chosen One, but what has he been chosen for?
1. From Bad To Worse

Angels and the Bad Man

Chapter 01 - From Bad To Worse

The characters and some scenarios in this story were developed by J.K. Rowling and Hideaki Anno.

- - -

It's been one hell of a year, Harry Potter thought to himself as he struggled to breathe. A Death Eater's arm was wrapped around his throat, exhorting him to surrender a little glass ball that Harry had to wonder if it was really all the effort. He tried to speak in protest, or to blurt out a spell, when the man suddenly yowled out and pulled away, as Neville rammed his wand into the man's eye. One rasped out 'STUPIFY', and Macnair, the axe-happy jackass who almost killed Buckbeak several years before, was down for the count.

War raged in the Ministry of Magic. Harry's team and a group of Aurors and Order members were desperately holding off Voldemort's cronies, all for a little ball, no bigger than a Rememberall, that everyone seemed so desperate to get a hold of. Harry continued to dodge and stumble out of the way, until Neville collided with him, the sphere containing the prophecy crashing into the ground just beneath Harry. He barely heard a voice talk, as Neville stared in horror, trying to apologize. Harry ignored him as he finished hearing the voice, then watched the white figure disappear.

"Oh no..." Neville rasped as he looked at the door in horror.

Voldemort walked into the room, flanked by the few surviving cronies that weren't already in the room.

Oh yeah, Harry thought to himself. Just keeps getting better.

--

Most of Harry's allies were bound, stunned, or unconscious. And once more, Harry found himself dangling in someone's grasp. Lucky him, Voldemort was taking it personally. Great Merlin, Voldemort's breath was foul, Harry thought as the Dark Lord ranted, demanding to know where Harry was hiding the prophecy. But Harry was too dazed to even comprehend, as his mind wandered in a dozen different directions.

Ironically, it was this daze that infuriated Voldemort the most, since Legilimency and the link between the two were completely useless, only picking up random thoughts. He grew incensed at the wandering commentary about Voldemort's appearance and breath. After a particularly ill-chosen mental comment, Voldemort snarled and hurled Harry away in a blind rage and spat out a Killing Curse...

Harry blinked in surprise as the spell hurled him backwards... through that Veil that so captivated and terrified him earlier...

--

He gasped as he looked around, his hand moving to his chest. He then froze. "What the hell?" Harry muttered to himself, looking around. He was in a hospital, a muggle hospital, at that. And more surprising, he was still alive. "This is getting to be a habit," He muttered to himself, then paused. His voice didn't sound right. In fact, it didn't even sound like him. He looked around for a nurse or doctor, then did a double take, as he realized his glasses were both missing and not needed. "Curiouser and curiouser," He muttered to himself as he stood.

An older Asian nurse walked in and looked at him, saying something. Somehow, a part of him could not understand a single word she said, but the rest of him comprehended her question, asking of his status. He blinked a few times, trying to figure out how he could understand her language when he had never even heard it before. Translation spell, perhaps? That made some sense, he supposed.

He was about to reply, when he found himself talking in the same language. Sure, translation spell, he said, still confused. "I'm fine. Thank you." He paused. "Where are my clothes?"

The nurse smiled as she pulled out a bundle from a nearby locker, giving it to him. Shirt, slacks... no robes, though. Odd. He didn't think it was a good idea to bring it up, however, since he did not want to assume she was a squib or witch. "Thanks." He said, as he sat down on the bed. The nurse took the chart at the foot of the bed, made a few notations, then replaced the chart and walked out the door.

He slipped out of the gown and into the clothing provided, when he paused, stared, and received one hell of a shock. Against one wall was a mirror. And in that mirror, he did not see the boy who he had been for fifteen years, but rather, an Asian boy, brown hair, brown eyes. Not the black hair and cat-green eyes he knew.

"Bloody hell..." Harry rasped in shock as he walked toward that mirror, touching his face. No lightning-bolt-shaped scar either. "What the hell happened?" he muttered to himself, running a hand along his face. He shook his head and finished dressing, then stepped out the door, looking around. "Where the hell am I, and who did this to me?" He grumbled under his breath.

He wandered through the building, a part of the back of his mind noting that the hospital, as he thought it, was more like the hospital wing at Hogwart's, or an infirmary, merely the medical part of a larger building. He also noticed he was lost, but that didn't matter much, since he knew he was lost to begin with. As he did, he rifled through his pockets, trying to find some clue of what was going on. He looked into the wallet in his hip pocket and frowned softly as he found what seemed to be a student ID of sorts, although he could not read it, at first. Once again, it seemed as if the translation spell seemed to tell his mind what his senses were telling him.

"Huh. Interesting name," Harry muttered to himself in English as he wandered, eventually finding himself looking out a window. "So what the hell happened?" He mused aloud. "Where is everyone else? Where am I for that matter? No wand, wrong body..." He paused, becoming worried. "I could be in trouble. What if I can't find my wand or replace it... what if I can't even do anything with this body?"

As Harry put the wallet back into his pocket, his eyes panned around for a bathroom. Finding one a few moments later, he stepped in and looked into the mirror, frowning. "I don't think a Death Eater would recognize me, but..." And then he froze as he stared into his own eyes through the mirror.

Anyone else would have just seen a teenage kid looking at a reflection of himself. Harry, on the other hand, saw a bizarre four-pupiled eye stareing out of a brown, bullet-shaped lump of a head as he remembered.

--

He found himself drowning in some odd-tasting liquid as he shook off the disorientation. Am I dead? Am I in hell? He thought as he desperately tried to claw his way to the surface, only to find himself restrained by a harness, but also that despite being surrounded in that liquid, he was not suffocating. The disorientation started to fade, suddenly to be replaced by an intense rage that somehow he knew what was not his own.

As he blinked, he started to see his surroundings, but he couldn't quite comprehend them. He found himself gazing around at skyscrapers, and before him was some hideous creature. As he looked at it, however, he noticed a bus on the ground near that monster. "No way,"he tried to mutter through the liquid about him as he realized that if that was not a toy, then the monster was several hundred feet tall. And that he was looking eye to... whatever... with the creature.

"What the hell is going on?" Harry tried to mumble, before gasping in surprise as he was shifted in his seat. He could feel the movement as he somehow closed in on the creature, and began to pound on the monster. He turned green as he saw a hand clad in purple armor wrap a fist about both of the monster's arms, and with a wrench, snapped both of them.

He barely stopped himself from vomiting as he saw those purple-armored fists pound down on a crimson orb buried deep in the monster's chest, before finding himself surrounded by green goo... then pain as the monster immolated itself. He stared around, as he started to hear voices babbling in some unknown language. But the thing that caught his eye was another eye... as he stared at it, and found himself staring back, and over and over again, the pain, disorientation and confusion caught up with him, and he passed out.

- - -

Harry wasn't sure how he got there, but he looked up, blinking weakly as he pulled his head away from the nearby toilet, mouth filled with the taste of bile. He struggled to pull himself to his feet, before moving to wash his mouth out. A moment later, he stumbled out and almost crashed into a pretty, darkhaired woman. "Ahh, Shinji-kun. There you are."

He blinked at her a moment. Shinji-kun? He didn't have a clue what she was talking about until he remembered the identification card he had looked at. Shinji Ikari. "Oh. Hello..."

"Shinji... are you alright?" The woman asked.

"No, not really but I'll be fine," Harry replied as the two stepped into an elevator.

"If you say so. Well, if you're ready, I can take you home. The Commander's set you up at my place," the woman stated.

Several hours later, Harry found himself being pointed toward the bathroom. "So I get stuck with a messy drunk... Petunia'd go spare." he murmured to himself before opening the bathroom door. As soon as he opened it, however, he froze as he stared at what seemed to be a very large penguin. "Odd choice for a familiar," He remarked to himself calmly after the penguin shook itself off. "Luna'd love him." He shook his head and walked around the bird, before heading for the bath.

Penpen blinked a moment, before waddling toward the kitchen, heading for his frozen nest.

Harry relaxed in the bath, muttering to himself. "Ok, so what happened? Voldemort tried to kill me again, and then I end up in that thing. In someone else's body. So did he kill me?" He frowned as he shifted in the tub. "If I'm dead, then why am I in someone else's body? That re... reincarnation thing Hermione mentioned once? For that matter, why can I speak another language? Why am I working for some foreign nation?"

He paused, then rolled his eyes. "For that matter, why am I talking to myself?"

With that, he finished cleaning up, and went to bed.

---

Harry looked at his school uniform and shrugged. "Well, it's not robes," he murmered to himself, before starting to make his way out the door and to school. And as soon as he arrived, he realized that he might be in trouble. Not only was it a muggle school, something he had not been in in five years, but Japanese schools were very different from their british counterparts. He floundered, but fortunately a girl who in some ways reminded him of Hermione, began to walk him through things with a confused patience.

He could not figure out the computer terminal, as the Dursleys would never let him anywhere near their precious 'Dinky Diddums's precious toys. in essence, he was up a creek without a paddle. There was only one thing that saved him.

The professor seemed to be completely ambivalent to his students as he lectured in a droning voice about something called the Second Impact. It was with relief that he stepped out onto the lawn for lunch, if only to decompress.

Alas, it was not to be, as a bigger kid almost blindsided him a few minutes later, and only his well-tested reflexes kept him from getting pummeled. "What are you doing?" Harry protested as he dodged another swing or two.

"You got my sister hurt, Ikari!" the boy ranted as Harry continued to dodge, though the wild shots were starting to find their mark.

Harry blinked as he went almost crosseyed with a hard punch to the side of his face, and then staggered as he lashed a hand out in desperation and yelled out, "Stupify!"

The boy promptly slammed against the wall behind him and fell to the ground, as Harry stared at his hand. "What the blazes?" he muttered to himself as he tried to pull himself together.

The confusion overwhelmed him until a soft, female, yet emotionless voice snapped him out of his reverie. "How did you do that, Ikari-san?"

Harry turned toward the voice, seeing a girl that he did not recognize, yet somehow knew who she was. Probably the same reason he knew Japanese without ever hearing it before. "I don't know... Ayanami-san?" he said.

Rei looked at him for a moment, before replying changing the subject. "We are to report to NERV. Another Angel is arriving."

"Yeah. That's a bad thing," Harry replied as the information from the briefing came back to mind. "Alright, lead the way..."

---

Kensuke and Toji stared, the latter somewhat guilty, at the plugsuited pilot in control of the giant machine they scrambled into. And as the machine moved back into combat, Shinji started to curse in English as he fought off the squid-like Angel, confusing the other two teenagers. Suddenly with a particularly loud curse, the Eva's knife impaled the Angel's core, causing it to collapse atop of them, just as the power died, the plug going completely dark.

Toji protested, until a voice spoke out, "Lumos!"

To be honest, Kensuke felt like clawing his eyes out at that point, as the brilliant light out of absolute darkness was a little like stareing right into a road flare. "Gah! Turn that off, will ya?"he protested, pulling his glasses off and pressing the heels of his hands to his burning eyes.

Toji was in much the same boat, though a bit of confusion started to set in. This was the second time he had seen Ikari do something odd. Was this a prerequisite to pilot the giant warmachines, or was he just maybe going into hallucinations induced by the execrable cafeteria food?

"Sorry about that," Harry said, still a bit surprised at how easily the wandless magic came to him, even if this was only his second spell since the ministry assault. He concentrated, and the light dimmed to tolerable levels.

"H.. how are you doing that?" Toji asked, gesturing to the small sphere of light in Shinji's hand.

"This? Uh..."Great going, Potter, Harry thought to himself. If Obliviators come here, I'm screwed. If there are Obliviators here. "It's... classified. Sorry," Harry said aloud. He heard it on one of those spy movies Dudley loved watching, not so much for the intrigue and espionage, but from the big explosions and promiscuous secret agents.

Kensuke ahhed and looked to Toji. "Must be part of how one controls it," he commented, then did a double take. "Oh no... I'll never get a chance to pilot an Evangelion!" He protested miserably.

Mate, you can bloody have it, Harry thought bitterly to himself. I mean I just love bouncing about the inside of a little room filled with foul-tasting gunk while giant monsters are trying to kill me and military types are trying to get me killed.

"Guess we'll just wait on the... SAR team," Harry said, stumbling a bit over the acronym for the Search and Rescue team. "And you might wanna keep quiet about it. Hush-hush stuff," He suggested, hoping the implication might keep them quiet about the magic.

Both boys nodded quickly, images entering their head that probably would have either made Harry laugh or wince. They were imagining Nerv feeding them to an Evangelion, or some other bizarre punishment, Harry suspected.

There was silence in the cockpit, except for the sloshing of LCL. "Um, Ikari-kun?" Toji said hesitantly, getting Harry's attention. "I wanted to say I'm sorry about decking you earlier," he said almost under his breath. "I was upset and took it out on you. Besides," He paused, looking around the cylindrical chamber. "Looks like you've got more problems than I do."

Harry blinked, then nodded slowly. "No problem. Just lay off the fists, ok? I got enough of that with... before."

The trio smiled a little bit, then froze as a loud clang was heard. "Is it still alive?" Kensuke said a bit shrilly.

With a surprising amount of fatalism in his tone, even to his own mind, Harry replied, "No, it has to be the SAR team. If it was the Angel, we'd probably already be dead."


	2. From Frying Pan to Particle Beam

Angels and the Bad Man

Chapter 02 – Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Particle Beam

The characters and some scenarios in this story were developed by J.K. Rowling and Hideaki Anno.

- - -

Harry sat upon a rock, looking out upon a field. It'd been three days since the Angel attack, and he had spent most of that time away from the apartment, away from school, away from NERV, trying to get a grip on exactly what had happened to him in the last... week? Maybe not even a week. Between periods of Angel combat-related unconsciousness, trying to figure out if there were even any wizards in this place and time, and why his magic seemed to be somewhat easy to access without a wand, not to mention the crowning moment of confusion, why he was in someone else's body, it was pretty fair to say that he was seriously troubled. Admittedly, he spent quite a lot of that time trying to see what he could and couldn't do without the wand, but he couldn't practice all that time and so the thoughts would return to him.

Who was this Shinji Ikari that he seemed to have taken over? He knew he could understand the local language only because of some vague instinct, and he assumed that his capability to control the giant warmachine people expected him to was also an aspect of this, but what caused it? Did he become this Shinji, or was he just, to use a metaphor that disturbed him, wearing him as a suit, so to speak? If so, where did this Shinji disappear to? Was he dead? That thought only brought up more concepts that Harry didn't particularly want to think of. Was this what it was like to be a ghost possessing someone?

Probably for the good of his sanity, a voice broke through his musings, snapping him out of his consideration. "Ikari-kun?"

Harry blinked, looking toward the voice. The skinny kid from school who hung out with the bigger kid who decked him at school... Kenny? Ken.. Kensuke, that's it. "Uh, Hi," he replied. "How're you doing? The guys at NERV didn't cause you any problems over the other day, did they?"

Aida shook his head as he set down the butt of his mock rifle on the ground, leaning on it a bit. "Not really. They said we shouldn't talk about it to anyone, though I suppose you could be an exception to that," he said with a sheepish grin.

Harry nodded. "I suppose so." He looked over the fatigues-clad teen and asked, "What's with the get-up?"

Kensuke looked at himself. "This? Oh, always liked the military.. the US Army, the Japanese Special Defense Force, all that. Would love to join some day, if I don't become an Eva pilot," He said with a wistful smile.

"Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be," Harry protested. "I figured you might have guessed that by the other day."

Kensuke shrugged. "I don't care, it's what I've always dreamed of."

Harry had never even heard of the term otaku before, otherwise he would have pegged Kensuke for a stereotypical military otaku right off the bat. He only looked at Kensuke, as he offered, "Come on over, it's getting late anyway, I'd better get some rations on."

–

The night passed in contemplation, as Harry and Kensuke talked, more than a bit awkwardly, Harry would have to admit to himself. It was almost a relief when the two went to sleep, as he was unable to think of many tops that weren't either classified by NERV, dangerous to reveal to muggles, or embarassing to talk about, such as his relatives. Kensuke had Harry pegged as a hikikomori, one of those young recluses who shut themselves away from other people, unable to socialize. If Harry had ever heard of the term, he would have been surprised at just how both wrong and apt it would have applied to him.

The fog was as thick as London's when Harry woke up the next day to the barely heard footsteps from outside. He grasped for a wand he didn't have out of reflex before sitting up. Damn it, he thought to himself. There aren't any Death Eaters here. He paused a moment as Kensuke woke up at his sudden motions, and poked his head out from the tent, looking up at a man in a black suit, one of several surrounding them.

"Uh, Ikari-kun? I think it's for you," Kensuke joked weakly.

"Yeah, probably," Harry replied as he crawled out of the tent.

The man before him introduced himself and his crew as NERV security, and explained that they were to escort him back to headquarters. He nodded. Time to pay the piper, Harry thought to himself as he thanked Aida for the dinner and conversation, before following the suits back to their cars.

–

Katsuragi-san wasn't too happy with Harry as she asked him where he had been the last four days, but he simply explained to Misato that he needed to get away and think things over, see what he had gotten himself into. After all, it wasn't every week that a kid catches a killing curse, wakes up in a giant robot that had gone berserk and tried to tear a massive alien into baco-bits. Not that he said those last thoughts to Misato. No sense getting tossed into what passed for the local loony-bin, after all.

A couple days later, Harry escorted Misato to a recovery facility, where the remains of the 4th Angel were being dissected and examined. It didn't help that the vast majority of what Misato and Akagi-sensei talked about made about as much sense as some of Hermione's rants on ancient runes and archaic theorems. The tea was fairly decent, however, he said, so the trip wasn't a complete loss. And besides the curiosity of Commander Ikari's injured hands, and some harmonics tests, the rest of the day was nothing special. He did end up learning something, however, as Akagi-sensei came over for dinner. Never let Misato anywhere near a stove, oven or any cooking device except for maybe an automatic kettle. He couldn't help but agree with Ritsuko that Misato somehow had the talent to make even store bought foods into culinary atrocities fit for only hospitals or prisons. Before Ritsuko left, she gave Harry his updated identification card, as well as one for Ayanami-san, asking him to walk it by her apartment.

As he approached the apartment complex Rei lived in, he started to have a rather bad feeling about the place, as the neighborhood was a complete rat's nest, which only had the saving grace of being virtually abandoned, rather than a gang territory. It reminded him unpleasantly of his (gratefully) short-lived trip to Knockturn Alley in the summer before his second year at Hogwart's, to such a degree that he practically expected a hag, Death Eater or other unsavory type to pounce at him from each alleyway he passed. He was grateful to have arrived at Rei's apartment complex... for all of about a minute. That minute ended quickly, however, as he walked down the dingy corridors that immediately brought to mind 13 Grimmauld. "How can she live in this hellhole?" Harry asked himself, before knocking upon Rei's door. With no answer, he nervously stepped inside, hoping she was ok.

That hope changed to worry as he looked about. Between the box of bloody rags, the numerous medications, the bloodstained bed, and the condition of the room itself looking like Dudley's room on a rough day, he couldn't conceive of how anyone could live there. His eyes stopped upon a pair of glasses resting upon the nightstand. Curious, he thought. Admittedly, he had not seen much of Ayanami-san, but he didn't believe she wore glasses. Much less broken ones. Before he could stop himself, he lifted a hand and murmured "Occulus Reparo", watching in satisfactions as the cracks in the lenses began to disappear. So distracted by his small success, that he did not notice the sound of a curtain rustling behind him. He was not even aware of his surroundings until a soft voice spoke, "How did you do that?"

Harry spun quickly toward the voice. Too quickly as his foot slipped out from under him, causing him to pitch forward, and before he knew it, he was on his hands and knees on the ground. Except he knew the ground was not that soft, from his observation.

"Would you mind moving?" The soft voice spoke from beneath him.

Harry opened his eyes to see a pair of expressionless red eyes looking back at him. His peripheral vision was also telling him that something else was wrong. He looked down for a moment to realize that Ayanami-san must have just emerged from the shower. That he was on top of her, with a hand where it shouldn't be. He went pale and practically hurled himself off of Rei, looking away. "Oh hell," he barked out in English before he could stop himself. "I'm very sorry, Ayanami-san," he said, returning to Japanese, apologizing profusely, or at least attempting to, as he seemed to be incapable of saying anything coherent at this point.

He stood there, looking away for several minutes and continuing to babble inarticulately, until he heard a door open, then close. "Really great, Potter. Brilliant, even," Harry snarled at himself before moving to follow Rei.

He spent most of the trip to NERV headquarters continuing to spout apologies that seemed to have rolled off Rei like the proverbial water off a duck's back. She seemed to take no notice of him whatsoever, until she ran her security card through a reader at a checkpoint, getting no response several times while he stood there like an idiot. Finally it filtered through why he was at Rei's apartment in the first place and he fumbled Ayanami's replacement card out of a pocket, offering it up.

She took it from him and walked on, ignoring him as she she had for the rest of the trip. He felt like a complete moron and more than a bit of a perv as he stammered out apologies and wishes for luck on the day's activation, only to be stopped only the third sentence Rei had spoken to him all day. "You are Commander Ikari's son, correct?"

The question had so surprised him, that he replied, "No.. I mean yes, I am."

"Don't you have faith in his work?"

Harry blinked a bit. "I wouldn't know. I hadn't seen him before I got here."

Rei looked at him, unable to understand the logic behind that statement, only to fill it in mentally by assuming that he had meant since they were last in contact. With that, she turned back toward the direction of the interminably long escalator.

An hour later, Harry and Misato watched from a catwalk through a window at the orange-painted Evangelion within. Harry was not aware of the entire situation but from what he gathered, something had gone very wrong the last time everyone was assembled here, and Harry could feel the tension permeate the area. It was only after Misato released a relieved sigh that Harry himself exhaled, not even realizing he was holding his own breath. It was only a few minutes later, however, as a klaxon went off that the tension spiked once more.

"Angel attack?" Harry surmised, as Misato nodded.

"Better suit up, Shinji," she replied, and Harry jogged off toward the locker room.

–

Harry took a deep breath of the funny-scented muck as he settled in for launch. The briefing stated that the Angel looked like a diamond floating in mid-air. A bit strange, but at least it didn't look like a greenish blob of crap or the Giant Squid with a gland problem. Of course, he did wonder what the next one would resemble. His thoughts were interrupted, however, as Misato told him he would be launching in three seconds. He braced himself for the sudden acceleration as the Evangelion hurtled toward the surface.

He guessed that he was about three quarters of the way up the launch shaft when Misato let out an urgent cry, warning him to dodge. Um, how? He thought to himself as he realized he was still locked into place on the gurney. The sudden stop shook him, but he could not say anything about that as all of a sudden, pain surged through every nerve. It wasn't the Cruciatis curse, though it sure as hell wanted to be, Harry thought for the split second before he passed out from the pain.

His eyes opened again at the sound of machinery moving. He looked around blearily and muttered, "Potter in a Can?" before relaxing as he was wheeled off to a room. He relaxed for a few moments before seeing Ayanami's face above him. "Uh, Hi, Ayanami-san."

She looks at him. "I am to brief you on the timetable of Operation Yashima." The albino girl withdrew a small booklet and began to rattle off a schedule in a tone that quite honestly made Binns sound animated, before she tossed a bagged up plugsuit into his lap. "I would advice dressing and waking up before reporting."

It was only then that he realized that he only had a sheet barely covering him. He quickly pulled the sheet up and muttered sardonically, "Looks like we're even I guess."

Ayanami gestured to a meal on a rolling cart next to his bed. The concept of food reminded him of how hungry he realized he should be, and how nauseous it actually made him. "I'll pass. Thank you though. I'll be there," He stated as he tore open the wrap around the plugsuit.

Misato and Ritsuko were waiting at the launch cage to fully brief Harry on the situation. The only weapon that NERV was able to scrounge up that might have a shot against the Fifth Angel was an improvised particle cannon they commandeered from the JSDF (Japanese Special Defense Force). It'd take practically all the electrical power output from all over Japan to provide enough kick to, in theory, punch through the shielding and destroy the Angel's core. Because Harry had a better synchronization to Unit 01 than Rei had to 00, he was to be the 'sniper', while Rei was to use a decommissioned space shuttle's hull as a shield in case of a counterattack. Harry and Rei then launched their Evangelions and piloted them to the firing site, shutting down and getting out while waiting for the power to be routed as the midnight start time for the operation loomed closer.

Harry looked at Rei, trying to work up something to say to her as they waited. He then shrugged and said, "So why do you do this?"

Rei did not move, except to say, "I am bound to this."

"Bound?" Harry asked, trying to think of what she could mean. "To who, or what?"

"To humanity."

Harry blinked, gazing at her, before replying. "I'm not sure, but maybe I know what you mean."

"I have nothing else."

Rei did not reply, except to stand and walk to the cockpit of her machine. She paused only to say the word, "Goodbye."

Harry blinked and shivered, as if Rei's 'goodbye' was only part of some unspoken prophecy of doom. He climbed into his own cockpit and tried to shake off the uneasy feeling, as Unit 01 started up. Misato's voice called through the communication system as he slipped into place, preparing for the night's work.

Harry felt the faceplate/targetting display slide in front of his face, characters showing up across it showed a magnetic-resonance-enhanced view of their surroundings, the octahedral angel continuing its inexorable drilling toward the GeoFront.

"Firing sequence ready in ten seconds, Shinji," Misato stated as Harry's hands slipped into the controls.

He braced himself as Misato rattled off the countdown, shaking the last of his odd sense of premonition about Rei as he stared down the sights of the cannon.

"Fire!" Misato barked, and Harry pulled the trigger.

A loud crash reverberated in his ears as an argent beam lashed out toward the Angel. However, with reflexes for which the term fast is woefully inadequate, Ramiel let loose its own nightmarish blast. The two proton beams streaked toward each other, with only one problem: the matching polarities of the two energy weapons caused the trajectories of the shots to skew, shifting wildly, causing both to tear major gouges off of both units.

Harry swore under his breath as he reached his hand to a control, causing the overheated fuse cartridge to eject, a second fuse slamming into place. However, the trigger would not squeeze, as the warnings, "TOO HOT" and "RECHARGING" flickered across his display. He muttered and cursed as he waited for the the indicators to disappear, allowing him to fire once more.

About twenty seconds later, however, another hellish lance of energy hurtled toward him. A particularly vicious oath escaped his lips as he saw his death impending... only to be blocked by the sudden motions of Rei's Evangelion, hurling the spacecraft hull before her, stopping the beam from striking its target, but at a hideous cost, as the hull began to slag down.

"Come on, come on, damn you," Harry swore in English, until the two warnings cleared off his display. With a slight adjustment, Harry pulled the trigger once more. Another siivery beam lashed out from the barrel of the cannon, only to strike true this time, tearing directly through the center of the diamond-shaped Angel.

He did not stay to watch his handiwork, moving toward Rei's nearly slagged down mecha, tearing the protective cover from atop the control plug containing Ayanami-san. He set the plug down before getting out of his own Evangelion, rushing toward the pod. He reached for the control levers, then flinched away at the heat. He paused only a moment before taking a swift step to the right, and snarling a reductor curse, tearing at the plate but only leaving a few gouges, though a pop was heard. He gritted his teeth before shouting Alohamora, causing the hatch to pop off.

Poking his head into the chamber was like sticking his head into a sauna, only less pleasant. "Rei? REI!?" He called to her as he climbed into the tube, moving toward the girl. "Come on, Rei, wake up," he pled, his hand moving to her shoulder.

The girl's eyes opened, but something was not right. From all he had seen of her, her eyes were almost always emotionless, only showing, perhaps a hint of fanatical adoration when near Commander Ikari. But the albino's eyes were filled with confusion as she seemed to struggle to pull herself together. "Wh... where am I?" Even her voice carried a different tenor, carrying a worry, even a fear, that he could not possibly imagine coming from Rei.

"You're safe, Rei, it's over," Harry reassured her.

"Rei? Who's Rei? Where am I? What happened?" Rei asked.

Oh no. Brain damage? Harry asked himself, before going pale as Rei sat up, fumbling for something. "I've got to get back before everyone else dies..." Rei mumbles, struggling in her seat.

"Everyone else di..." He froze as an ugly, terrifying thought came to mind. "Who are you?" Harry stammered.

"Doesn't matter," Rei muttered, "Have to get back to the Ministry."

Harry flinched and placed his hands on her shoulders, pulling her to look into into his eyes. "It can't be... Ginny? Hermione? Luna?"

The girl looked back at him. "How do you know those names? How do you know me?"

Harry looked at her. "It's me, Harry," He stated.

"You can't be Harry..." Rei protested then paused, looking into his eyes. "You are, aren't you? Oh dear," She stated, sitting back into the seat.

Harry was not sure who it was in Rei's body, but he was absolutely certain it was one of his friends. He sat down a bit heavily. "Are you alright?"

"Not quite, but I guess that is quite understandable. I find myself a bit disappointed that the afterlife is so... boring-seeming," She stated.

"Luna?" Harry guessed, looking at her.

"Yes, I am," she said as she turned her head toward him.

"Well, this isn't the afterlife, but we don't have much time. The Search and Rescue teams are coming so I better explain quick. Somehow, when Voldemort blasted me through the veil, I ended up in the body of some kid namd Shinji Ikari. It's about 20 years later, and something terrible happened. You are in the body of a girl named Rei Ayanami. We're both pilots of giant machines called Evangelions that are fighting monsters called Angels. We just ended up destroying one and are now waiting for the medical teams to arrive."

Luna looked at him with an expression of skepticism, and Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the irony of the situation. "No, I'm not nuts, Luna, but we don't have a lot of time. Just trust me for now. You should be able to speak Japanese, and I haven't figured out how that happened, only that somehow we've picked up the skills and memories of the people we're inhabiting. Rei doesn't say much, so if you just answer questions as tersely as possible, we should be able to get through this."

Luna paused, then nodded. "Alright, Harry."

"Just call me Ikari-kun for now. I'll call you Ayanami-san, for the time being," Harry explained quickly, then looked up as sounds from outside indicated that the SAR team had arrived.


End file.
